Unless you’re one of those folks, you probably sleep with your iPhone plugged in. This means that when you wake up, it is fully charged and ready to go. However, constantly plugging in your phone to charge it isn’t always a good idea. If your phone’s battery is completely charged but you continue to charge it, the battery will gradually degrade until it can no longer hold a charge at all. Battery health refers to your battery’s ability to hold a charge and is crucial for phones, laptops, tablets, and other electronic devices.

This is where Apple’s Optimized Charging comes into play. Optimized Battery Charging (simplified OBC) is a function that prevents your iPhone from charging to preserve the capacity of its battery. It may appear to be a bad trait but trust us when we say it isn’t.

Here’s how Optimized Battery Charging works, and how to turn it on or off.

How Optimized Battery Charging keeps your iPhone’s battery in excellent shape? 

As previously stated, if your iPhone is completely charged yet still attached to a charger, you risk harming the battery. Charging a fully charged battery degrades its components and chemicals, making it more difficult to maintain power.

Simply told, if you bought an iPhone, a completely charged battery would allow you to use it for 24 hours. An overcharged battery may only last 20 hours, then 15 hours, and finally 10 hours. In the future, it will not endure as long.

Optimized battery charging can help prevent this. While OBC is enabled, your iPhone will begin charging at a slightly slower rate, lowering the amount of time it spends fully charged and plugged in. This protects your battery and extends the life of each charge.

The feature analyzes your schedule and keeps track of when you use your iPhone and when it is charging. If you put in your iPhone before going to bed, it will charge until it reaches 80% and then ceases charging. It will then wait until the alarm sounds before receiving a full charge. You don’t have to worry about it overcharging as you sleep since OBC will handle it.

While this does mean that you’re purposefully reducing the iPhone’s charging, it’s a positive benefit in the long run. A strong battery protects the iPhone alive if possible and enables you to extract more performance from each charge.

On all new iPhones, Optimized Battery Charging should be activated by default. However, if you wish to check or disable the functionality immediately, you may do so.

How to turn Optimized Battery Charging on or off 

1. Scroll down to Battery in the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Tap Battery Health.
3. You can check your battery’s health on the Battery Health page. To enable or disable OBC, press the Optimized Battery Charging toggle button. 

If you turn it off, you’ll have to decide whether to do so temporarily or permanently.